The Good, Bad, and Ugly - NW Style

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John Galt

John Galt

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The Good:

1. Pass defense. It continues to be stellar and far improved from anything we've seen in at least the past 5 years. Giving up 67 yards is stellar against anyone.
2. Defensive Adjustments. After we get beat on a play a few times, the defense figures it out. I'm not sure if this is due to Claeys making adjustments, or the defense learning on the fly. Probably some of both. After watching Mason and Brewster defenses that continued to get beat by the exact same play all game long, this is refreshing. The Venric Mark runs that killed us in the 1st half weren't there at all for him in the 2nd. And for the 2nd week in a row, no points allowed in the 2nd half.
3. Pass Blocking. We continue to give our QBs time to make at least 2 reads. I'll take it given how young they are.
4. Michael Amaefula. I continue to be impressed with him both stopping the run and putting pressure on the QB.

The Bad:

1. Fans that were afraid to get wet and ducked for cover.
2. Run blocking. We're not moving anyone off the line of scrimmage. Kirkwood is running as hard as you can, but he has to fight for every inch.
3. Burning redshirts for Plsek and Williams. I don't understand why we're doing this halfway through the season. Plsek seemed to be in for about 8 plays, Williams about 6. I don't know if Rabe got injured, that may explain why Plsek had to play. Gillum is still nowhere to be found despite being hyped big-time. Williams looked like an absolute bruiser on his long run.

The Ugly:

1. Lamonte Edwards receiving the opening kick-off. This is hand down the worst decision I've seen from the staff in their tenure here. A back-up LB who hasn't handled a single kick return in his career, back for the opening kick of the game???? A head scratcher to say the least.
2. 1st half run defense. The TD runs by Mark were atrocious. He literally wasn't touched, twice.
3. The passing game. 16/30, 169 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT. At home, against a NW team that gave up 39 points to Penn St. and 29 to Indiana. Yuck.
 

Did Hageman make a play today other than the taunting personal foul? He's bad and ugly the past two weeks. In a perfect world we don't burn the redshirts, but in the world we're living in I understand and support it. Both of the players who had theirs burned today seem like they can help us win now so play them. I just don't get all the OL injuries the past two years. Is it just plain bad luck or did we fatten these guys up too much too quick to where they just can't stay healthy. It seems hard to explain how we can continue to have so many injuries there. OL play this year will keep us from making a bowl, unless we get some turnovers from the D and steal one or two games.
 

too bad we couldn't get some scores on the board to make NW pay for awful game pace. sure they won but you can' beat better teams taking penalties just to eat time ......repeatedly.
 

Hageman was in on several tackles and played hard all game. I think your tv was out of focus.
 

As I stated in an earlier thread, R. Williams was playing special teams against UNLV, so his redshirt was not "burned" today.
 


I was at the game and Hageman hasn't made a play of any significance yet in 2 Big Ten games.
 

John Galt said:
1. Lamonte Edwards receiving the opening kick-off. This is hand down the worst decision I've seen from the staff in their tenure here. A back-up LB who hasn't handled a single kick return in his career, back for the opening kick of the game???? A head scratcher to say the least.
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Edwards was not back deep. He was one of the blockers in front of Stoudermire and Maye. The kick was very short so he had to field it. The coaches didn't do anything wrong there.
 

Indi1006 said:
I was at the game and Hageman hasn't made a play of any significance yet in 2 Big Ten games.
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Sacks aren't the only way a guy can make plays, especially for a DT. He's still making plays.
 

No, he was back deep with Stoudemire. It was right in front of me. Maye came in on the second kick.
 





We must have been watching different games. Of all your "goods," I can only agree--and partially on that one--with #4. Our pass defense is better than in the past, but Balthazar can't seem to get turned around to play the ball. I agree that we made adjustments, but teams have been killing us with one basic running play all season long and we can't get a handle on it. They double-team Hageman and then "rub" behind the double-team. It's been kiliing us since Western Michigan.

The only things I found encouraging today were Gray's and Williams' running. Kirkwood is a tough inside runner, but Williams looks like he has a little more downfield speed.

Edwards is starting to look like a kid without a position, which is too bad because he looks like an athlete.

Hageman may be getting frustrated. He's getting double-teamed on every play.
 

Claeys did a nice job adjusting at halftime. He played run stopping stunts second half where he slanted the DEs down and instead of the runners being able to scrape past the doubleteam. Hageman was on the move slanting out and then the ends crashed down and made some really nice plays for no gain and even a loss or two.
 






50PoundHead said:
We must have been watching different games. Of all your "goods," I can only agree--and partially on that one--with #4. Our pass defense is better than in the past, but Balthazar can't seem to get turned around to play the ball. I agree that we made adjustments, but teams have been killing us with one basic running play all season long and we can't get a handle on it. They double-team Hageman and then "rub" behind the double-team. It's been kiliing us since Western Michigan.

The only things I found encouraging today were Gray's and Williams' running. Kirkwood is a tough inside runner, but Williams looks like he has a little more downfield speed.

Edwards is starting to look like a kid without a position, which is too bad because he looks like an athlete.

Hageman may be getting frustrated. He's getting double-teamed on every play.
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The running play hurts us because Rallis gets caught up in traffic and can't fill. If you watch the replays of the Mark TD's, it's embarrassing how bad it looks.
 

Putting Edwards back for the opening kick-off was the biggest head scratcher of a coaching decision in my short life. If ever a first play can cost you game, that appeared to be it. What the heck was the coaching staff thinking?
 

John Galt said:
The running play hurts us because Rallis gets caught up in traffic and can't fill. If you watch the replays of the Mark TD's, it's embarrassing how bad it looks.
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Our LBs are just not very good. They couldn't shed a block to save their lives in the first half. Did Beal play, by the way?
 

GophersInIowa said:
Our LBs are just not very good. They couldn't shed a block to save their lives in the first half. Did Beal play, by the way?
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Beal is on the kick-off team, but I don't remember seeing him on D today.
 

afurry91 said:
Putting Edwards back for the opening kick-off was the biggest head scratcher of a coaching decision in my short life. If ever a first play can cost you game, that appeared to be it. What the heck was the coaching staff thinking?
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With all of the outrage I've seen about this you'd think that Edwards plays on the OL. He doesn't. He's one of the best athletes on the team. He was recruited as a RB, he played his first year as a RB. I don't see it as much of a head scratcher.
 

mkAz said:
With all of the outrage I've seen about this you'd think that Edwards plays on the OL. He doesn't. He's one of the best athletes on the team. He was recruited as a RB, he played his first year as a RB. I don't see it as much of a head scratcher.
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We are all annoyed that it wasn't Tommy Olson back there.

That said, Lamonte Edwards should not be returning kicks. How many of our guys played offense earlier in their careers? I'm sure almost all of our DBs were HS RBs/WRs, a lot of our DL. I understand that Edwards was a RB last year, but I think most people are most comfortable with the current skill guys returning kicks.
 

Agreed about our backers. If we could have Campbell, Triplett, and Lawrence as LB's with the rest of the starters.....best D in last 50 years of Gopher football. I know that's not saying much, but LB's are by far weakest unit of the D!!!!!
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
We are all annoyed that it wasn't Tommy Olson back there.

That said, Lamonte Edwards should not be returning kicks. How many of our guys played offense earlier in their careers? I'm sure almost all of our DBs were HS RBs/WRs, a lot of our DL. I understand that Edwards was a RB last year, but I think most people are most comfortable with the current skill guys returning kicks.
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This has to rank with the dumbest coaching decisions of all time.
 

50PoundHead said:
This has to rank with the dumbest coaching decisions of all time.
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I still rank letting Dan Nystrom try a 59 yard FG into the wind at Camp Randall in 2000 with about two minutes left in the 1st half up 12-3.

Dumbest is such a strong word, but it definitely causes a "Why?" thought....
 

mkAz said:
Because he flubbed up a kick return? Really?
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He's played RB, LB, and I think even had a look at DE during his time at the U. Why he's returning kicks, I will never know.

What I'm saying is that he's a very good athlete whose particular skills may not transfer to any one position on the field.
 

FireDaveLee said:
I still rank letting Dan Nystrom try a 59 yard FG into the wind at Camp Randall in 2000 with about two minutes left in the 1st half up 12-3.

Dumbest is such a strong word, but it definitely causes a "Why?" thought....
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Hence, the use of the term "rank with" by me. Being a Gopher fan for as long as I have been, I have a pretty healthy list.
 

50PoundHead said:
He's played RB, LB, and I think even had a look at DE during his time at the U. Why he's returning kicks, I will never know.

What I'm saying is that he's a very good athlete whose particular skills may not transfer to any one position on the field.
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He was clearly back there to be a lead blocker for Troy. NW though had no intention of kicking it to Troy. I really do not understand all the outrage over having Edwards back there. Next time, tell him not to jump when catching the kickoff.
 

FireDaveLee said:
I still rank letting Dan Nystrom try a 59 yard FG into the wind at Camp Randall in 2000 with about two minutes left in the 1st half up 12-3.

Dumbest is such a strong word, but it definitely causes a "Why?" thought....
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That was an all-timer. Jerry tried to rival it with the stupid fake field goal last week, but Mase takes the cake with that decision at Camp Randall.
 

Stan The Caddy said:
That was an all-timer. Jerry tried to rival it with the stupid fake field goal last week, but Mase takes the cake with that decision at Camp Randall.
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Of everything that went down on Saturday, I agree that this one is quite underappreciated by everyone here thus far. The good thing was at least a time out was used before it, something that wasn't valuable when that end of the half drive started near midfield.

I'm not totally upset; I thought the D played pretty darn well (you tell me NW scores only 21 points, I'd take it in a second) and other than the kickoff gaffes, I didn't think the special teams was awful. 2-2 on FG's & didn't think the punting was bad. I thought the running game was sufficient. But definitely some head scratching moments. And the moments where the coaching dialed up something nice, the players didn't execute.

Eliminate turnovers, eliminate big plays, make a few big plays of our own & the Gophers have a chance against Wisconsin.
 

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